REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
UPON DEPARTURE FROM THE SOUTH LAWN
The White House
Washington, D. C.

3:37 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: I have just completed a meeting with
advisors discussing the terrible and outrageous incident in Sarajevo
yesterday. I'm glad to report that the United States has been able
to evacuate several of the wounded and their family members and
they're on their way to a hospital in Germany. We'll be continuing
to work on that.

I have asked Ambassador Albright to urge the United
Nations to accelerate the efforts to try to confirm responsibility
for the strike in the market yesterday. And I have approved having
the Secretary of State and Ambassador Albright continue their
consultations with our allies about what next steps should be taken
in response to this particular incident and to make an effort to try
to reach a settlement, hoping that the shock of this incident will
perhaps make all parties more willing to bring this matter to a
close.

The ultimate answer to all this killing is for the three
parties to reach an agreement that they can live with and honor.
There have been several times over the last couple of months when it
didn't seem that they were all that far apart, and I hope that the
shock of these deaths will reinforce to them, as it does to the
entire world, that they ought to go on and reach a settlement; and we
will do what we can to push that.

Q Have you decided against air strikes, Mr.
President?

THE PRESIDENT: No, but it's not a decision -- first of
all, I want to give the U.N. a chance to confirm responsibility for
this. Obviously, it seems highly likely that the Serbs are
responsible, but they ought to -- there ought to be some effort to
confirm it since their leader has denied it. And also, as you know,
the authority under which air strikes can proceed, NATO acting out of
area pursuant to U.N. authority, requires the common agreement of our
NATO allies. So I cautioned them on this at our NATO meeting. Many
of them remain concerned that because they have soldiers on the
ground -- something we don't have -- that their soldiers will be
retaliated against if we take action from the air. That's not to say
that there won't be retaliation, because we certainly discussed it in
considerable length today, and I discussed it yesterday. But I just
want to try to explain why there's more reluctance on the part of
some of the Europeans than there is on the part of the United States,
because they do have troops on the ground and they are worried about
some retaliation coming to those troops.

Q What are your thoughts now on the arms embargo?

THE PRESIDENT: I've always been for it. I haven't
changed my position on that. I do believe that -- I do believe,
however, that the appropriate thing to do now is to see if this

horrible incident can be the spur to a vigorous effort to achieve a
peace agreement; and that's what we ought to focus on now. If we
continue to fail in the face of these kinds of incidents, I think
that the United States' position on the arms embargo is only
reinforced by the kind of thing that happened yesterday.

But I want to try to work with our allies now to take a
shot at hoping we can bring this matter to a conclusion.

Q Yesterday you said in your statement that you
called the massacre a cowardly act. But some members of Congress are
saying that the U.S. is acting cowardly by repeatedly saying that
they will consider air strikes without making good on those threats.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the United States -- I will say
again -- under international law, in the absence of an attack on our
people, does not have the authority to unilaterally undertake air
strikes. And every time we discuss it, the other countries who have
troops on the ground -- and we don't -- it's very well for these
members of Congress to say that, they don't have any constituents on
the ground there. And the people who have constituents on the ground
say, well we have to think about whether our soldiers are going to be
killed in large numbers in retaliation for this if you do it.

Now, as you know, I am -- I have long believed that we
should have stand-by air strike authority, and that there are
circumstances under which we should use it. In this case, again I
want to say, the United Nations has not finished their confirmation
process. And until they do, I think it would be inappropriate for me
to make a final decision. But I do think you have to give some
credence to the position of our European allies. They do have
soldiers on the ground there who can be shot at and shelled long
after our planes are gone; that is what is animating their position.
That does not mean it won't happen this time. I have discussed it
yesterday, I discussed it today, we are discussing it with our
allies. But they are in a fundamentally different position and they
have been as long as they have had troops there.